<p>I happen to be a midwesterner and while I don’t consider myself anti-military I was strongly against the Iraq War. I do have a problem with recruiter tactics.</p>
<p>I don’t think people are anti-military because they are concerned about whether their child should make such a huge commitment and if it is the right one. Look at all the hubris going on around here merely about getting into a college for four years, and making sure it’s the right “fit”. Shouldn’t there be alot more investigation if a child is considering going into the military? A far more serious and often unchangeable commitment.</p>
<p>I am grateful we have people in this country who voluntarily join the armed forces.</p>
<p>I am very grateful that my daughter has no interest in that career.</p>
<p>It has nothing to do with my position on war in general, or any specific war. It has everything to do with the fact that I don’t want my kid to be blown up. If someone must die, let it be someone else’s kid.</p>
<p>Great point bus driver. What if the thread had been titled " Son, about to turn 18, just got engaged"… Would as many people have advocated that he was an adult and it was a great idea?</p>
<p>I have many family members and friends in the military. I think that for lots of people it is an admirable career of service. But just like marriage, one can be too young to make that decision. In my opinion, 17 or 18 is too young. Military or married, just too young to make the commitment.</p>
<p>My head is reeling. I’m sure in part, because so much has changed since I served. I am from NYC, but ended up serving in California, and I’m still here, whatever that means.</p>
<p>The only thing I would want to add is, at 17, even though I was pretty smart, there is no way I could have appreciated what I was being asked to commit to. To maybe killing people, or making other people kill people, no matter why. Two year later, I could have changed my mind, didn’t realize it, but would have understood the commitment better. </p>
<p>Still, NOTHING would have prepared me for what it felt like to have a new baby, and realize that more than 10 years prior, I had committed to leave my baby behind.</p>
<p>Again, it all worked out great for me. Once again, I was blessed/lucky/fortunate/deserving…whatever. For some of the folks I sent back? Not so much.</p>
<p>I’m with you there, shrinkrap. When I was commissioned, I was comfortable with the fact that I might be required to kill and die for my country. But I was naive enough to think I was never going to get married and have children. And then be required to leave my baby. The idiocy and immaturity, we think we know it all at that young age, but I knew nothing.</p>
<p>let me add that my DS’s hope is to save millions of lives by developing an early detection system to detect earthquakes before they strike, and thus potentially save Americans as well as others worldwide who live in earthquake prone areas. He can better serve mankind using his brains rather than becoming target practice for enemy snipers in a war.</p>
<p>Son told me that these recruiters are holding work-out sessions for all the new recruits and potential recruits. Two of his friends, from his college prep-school, have been attending. He said they “aren’t planning on going to collge”. One wants to be on a S.W.A.T. team, but the other kid might not be able to enlist, as he’s 100 lbs. overweight. I can’t believe they’ll go as far as to help kids get in shape, in order to join. I hope these boys’ parents know about their activities. A big problem with teenage boys, my son included, is they don’t talk a lot. You don’t know what’s going on in their heads or in their lives.</p>
<p>This morning I read that the drop-out rate in Las Vegas is 60% and that grade inflation helps a good chunk of the remaining students to graduate. I’m surprised that recruiters actually have to recruit given the numbers of kids hitting their late teenage years with very few options.</p>
<p>Perhaps the armed forces prefer those with high-school diplomas to dropouts though.</p>
<p>Both of our kids didn’t attend public schools and don’t have high-school diplomas so our only contacts were in the mail.</p>
<p>Each of the services strictly limit the number of high school dropouts, including GED holders, who can enlist each year. Statistics have shown that this category of enlistees fail out at twice the rate of those with a hs diploma or college credits.</p>
<p>The Air Force allows less than one percent of annual enlistments to be recruits without a high school diploma. The Marines allow no more than five percent. The Army allows no more than ten percent. The Navy allows no more than five to ten percent.</p>
<p>To even be considered for one of the few slots available, a GED holder or hs dropout must score much higher on the ASVAB than a person with a hs diploma. However, if a GED holder has 15 or more college credits he/she is in the exact same enlistment category as a hs diploma holder.</p>
<p>My h is active duty AF for 25 years now. He is an officer. Our middle d who is in college got contacted by National Guard, I believe, last year. SHe wrote on her card that she would love to join the Guard (or any military service) but she has medical conditions that preclude it including neurally mediated hypotension and ADHD, and she need medications for both conditions. They did send her the sweatshirt which she loves because she is a strong supporter of the military but no one contacted her. Apparently they read her card and took it to heart. No one tried to get her to lie or change her medical record.</p>
<p>When she was choosing classes, we recommended that she not take the ROTC classes. They didn’t really fit into her major plan and they took a lot of time. She listened, and decided they weren’t the best idea for her. </p>
<p>SHe plans to finish college, probably got to law school and then see if they want her for a JAG. Her hypotension problem is likely to be gone by then and she may have learned how to drink coffee like a fiend for the ADHD (which is what I do but I have a milder form).</p>
<p>I enlisted in the Air Force and was serving at age 17, with my mother’s signature for approval. My father went ballistic, in fact saying he would disown me. (Not that he had anything to own, so his rhetoric struck me as nonsense.) He had a negative experience in WWII, but I still consider his reaction ill-advised and over the top. I never forgot his lack of support and discounted future advice from him, as he lost my respect with how he handled that situation. He would have done better to have listened with an open mind and at the end of the day simply agreed to disagree. </p>
<p>A 17-year old doesn’t have all the facts when making a decision to enlist, but that is true for all kinds of decisions. Who doesnt encounter an unexpected surprise or two when they get married, have a child, or change jobs, no matter what the age? One thing the military will teach is how to face and work through challenges, since quitting is not an option.</p>
<p>My younger son has given some consideration to joining the military, but is one who would have to lose a little weight first to be considered eligible. He is very appreciative of the fact that a recruiter would be willing help him lose weight if he decides to pursue that goal, rather than reject him out of hand on the basis of his weight.</p>
<p>Slightly OT…
A significant percentage of young Americans are unfit for military service due to weight. Recruiters are expanding the pool of potential recruits by helping people lose weight and work out. As an added bonus for the military, those who lose weight and gain strength in order to join have already shown some dedication to joining, which one could assume will mean good things for retention!</p>